Category Archives: doughnuts

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, then you know that I like using ingredients that I’ve had leftover. I was also in the mood to make cookies with all of the talk about them on other blogs for the holidays. Therefore, I made whole wheat chocolate chip cookies. The twist in these cookies is the whole wheat flour, along with cinnamon-sugar and semi-sweet baker’s chocolate—all ingredients I had leftover from previous baking adventures. (Including, but not limited to, doughnuts and corn-stalk rolls.)

All week long, I’ve been eating the dough out of the fridge, and just baked off a few today. Both ways of consuming the dough are really great, but of course you have to wait longer for the baked ones. :)

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

I made the Yeast Doughnuts from Alton Brown since I have made cake doughnuts before and I also did not want to make the jam filled or the pumpkin flavored. The recipe is quite simple, and the mixing method is like any other yeast dough recipe.

I think the most challenging part of this recipe is the frying of the doughnuts. I have a candy thermometer, so it is easy for me to read the temperature of the oil. This is important because if the temperature is too cold, they will be oily. If it is too hot they will just burn on the outside and be raw in the middle. The recipe I followed said around 363ºF is ideal. I have a gas range and it is hard to keep a consistent temperature. Also, the temperature drops after each batch, so you need to watch it carefully.

I kept it simple and covered the doughnuts in cinnamon-sugar. Some people might want to make a glaze, while others might like powdered sugar. What ever you desire, I hope you have plenty of friends and family to share these doughnuts with!